Fritz Müller

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(Redirected from Fritz Muller)
Image:Fritz-muller-1821-1897.jpg
For the Swiss doctor, see Fritz Müller (doctor)

Dr Johann Friedrich Theodor "Fritz" Müller (alternatively spelt Mueller (see ü) or Anglicised to Muller; 31 March 1821– 21 May 1897) was a German biologist who emigrated to Brazil, where he studied the natural history of the Atlantic rainforest, and was an early advocate of Darwinism. Müllerian mimicry is named for him.

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Biography

Müller was born in Windischholzhausen near Erfurt, Germany in 1821, the son of a minister.

As a medical student he started to question religion and in 1846 became an atheist, joining the Free Congregation. He then refused to swear his medical oath because it contained the phrase "so help me God and his sacred gospel", and was disappointed by the failure of the 1848 Prussian Revolution. Also a believer in free love. As a result, he emigrated to Brazil in 1852 with Hermann Blumenau to the new colony of Blumenau.

Müller wrote Für Darwin in 1864, arguing that Charles Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection that had been first advanced 5 years before in The Origin of Species was correct, arguing that Brazilian crustaceans and their larvae could be affected by adaptations at any growth stage. This was translated into English by W.S. Dallas as Facts and Arguments for Darwin in 1869.

Despite his geographical isolation, Müller corresponded with Charles Darwin, Hermann Müller, Alexander Agassiz, Ernst Krause, and Ernst Haeckel, amongst others.

Between 1874 and 1891, Müller worked as a travelling naturalist for the Brazilian National Museum, working with basic materials. He was a contemporary of several other foreign naturalists and scientists who were invited by Emperor Dom Pedro II to work at the museum, such as Émil Goeldi and Hermann von Ihering.

See also: Henry Walter Bates.

Biography

  • A biography in German, see Alfred Moeller (1920): Fritz Mueller. Werke, Briefe und Leben
  • A more modern biography is given by David A. West. Fritz Müller: A Naturalist in Brazil. Blacksburg: Pocahontas Press, 2003. ISBN 0-936015-92-6

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